\ 



^9 



FOB genehal circulation. 



ADDRESS 



TO THE 



P E O F I^ E 



Ci" 



WEST VIRGINIA; 



SHEWING THAT 



SLAVERY IS INJURIOUS TO THE PUBLIC WELFi^RE, AND 
THAT I r riAY BE GRADUALLY ABOLISHED, WITH- 
OUT DETRIMENT TO THE RIGHTS AND IN- 
TERESTS OF SLAVEHOJ^DERS. 



BY A SLAVEHOLDER OF ^WEST VBRGINIA. 

LEXINGTON: 



TRINTED BY 11. C, NOEl^ 
1847. 



I.' 




Book^ 




CORRESPOi\DE]¥CE. 



Lexington, Va., Sept. 1st, 1847. 
Dear Sir : 

The undersigned believing that the argument recently deliver- 
ed by you in the Franklin Society, in favor of the removal of the 
negro population from Western Virginia, was not only able but un- 
answerable; and that its publication will tend to bring the public 
mind to a correct conclusion on that momentous question ; request 
that you will furnish us with a full statement of that argument for 
the press. 

VVe cannot expect that you will now be able to furnish us with 
the speech precisely as it was delivered, nor is it our wish that you 
shall confine yourself stricily to the views then expressed. Our 
desire is to have the whole argument in favor of the proposition, 
presented to the public, in a perspicuous and condensed form. And 
believing that your views were not only forcible but conclusive, 
and that they were presented in a shape, which cannot give just 
cause of offence to even those who are most fastidious and excitable 
on all subjects having any connexion with the subject ol slavery, 
we trust that you will be disposed cheerfully to comply with our 
request above expressed. 

Very Respectfully, 

Your ob't serv'ts, 

S. JVlcD. MOORE, 
JOHN LETCHER, 
DAVID P. CURRY, 
JAMES G. HAMILTON, 
GEORGE A. BAKER, 
J. H. LACY, 
JOHN ECHOLS, 
JAMES R. JORDAN, 
JACOB FULLER, Jr., 
D. E. MOORE, 
JOHN W. FULLER. 
The Rev. Henry Ruffner, D. D. 



Lexington, Va., September 4th, 1847. 

To Messrs. Moore, Letcher, ^'c, 
Gentlemen : 

Though long opposed in feeling to the perpetuation of slavery, yet 
like others I felt no call to immediate action to promote iti removal, 



until tlie close of the important debate in the Franklin Society, to 
which your letter alludes. The arguments delivered by several of 
yourselves, and the results of my own examinatio.i of facts, so im- 
pressed my nn'nd with the importance of the subject to the welfare 
of the country, that I proceeded immediately to write out an argu- 
ment in favor of a gradual removal of slavery from my native soil, 
our dear West Virj^inia ; and intended in some way to present it to 
the consideration of my fellow-citizens. Some months ago you pri- 
vately signified a desire that it might be printed, and have now formally 
made the request. 

I cheerfully comply, so far as this, in the first instance, that I wiU 
prepare lor the press an Address to the Citizens of West Virginia, 
comprising the substance of the argument as delivered by me, en- 
riched and strengthened by some of the impressive views exhibited 
by several of yourselves. Within the limits of a moderately sized 
pamphlet, it is impossible to introduce every important consideration 
bearing on the subject, or to do more than present the substance of 
the prominent facts and reasons which were more fully exhibited and 
illustrated by the debaters ir) the Society. 

As we are nearly all slaveholders, and none of us approve of the 
principles and measures of the sect of abolitionists, we think that no 
man can be offended with us for offering to the people an argument, 
whose sole object is to sliow that the prosperity of our West Virginia 
— if not of East Virginia also, — would be promoted by removing 
gradually the institution of slavery, in a manner consistent with the 
rights and interests of slaveholders. 

To the Great Being who rules the destinies of our country, 1 com- 
mit the issue of this important movement. 

Yours, 

HENRY RUFFNER. 



ADDRESS 



TO THE 



CITIZENS OF WEST VIRGINIA 



Fellow-Citizens, 

Now is the time, when we of West Virginia should review 
oar public aiTairs, and consider what measures are necessary and ex- 
pedient to promote the welfare of ourselves and our posterity. 
Three years hence another census of the United States will have 
been coujpleted. Then it will appear how large a majority we are 
of the citizens of this commonwealth, and how unjust it is that our 
fellow citizens of East Virginia, being a minority of the people, 
should be able, by means of their majority in the Legislature, to 
govern both East and West for their own advantage. You have 
striven in vain to get this inequality of representation rectified. 
The same legislative majority has used the power of which we 
complain, to make all our complaints fruitless, and to retain the as- 
cendancy now when they represent a minority of the people, which 
they secured to themselves eighteen years ago, while they vet re- 
presented the majority. 

You have submitted patiently, heretofore, to the refusal of the 
East to let West Virginia grow in political power as she has growri 
in population and wealth. Though you will not cease to urge your 
claims, you will, if necessary, still exercise this patient forbearance, 
until the next census shall furnish you with an argument, which 
cannot be resisted with any show of reason. Then — as it seems to 
be understood among us — you will make a final and decisive effort 
to obtain your just weight in the government. 

That will be a critical period in your public affairs. A great end 
will then be gained, or a great failure v/ill be experienced. Are 
you sure. of success? Can you be sure of it, while the question of 
representation stands alone, and liable to unpropitious influences, 
even on our side of the Blue Ridge? We propose to strengthen 
tills cause, by connecting with it another of equally momentous 
consequence — in some respects even more — to our public welfare. 
United they will stand ; divided they may fall. 

Ifou claim the white basis of representation, on (he republicaa 



principle that the majority shall rule. You deny that slaves, who 
constitute no i)art of the political hody, shall add political weight to 
their masters, either as individual voters or as a mass of citizens. 
But the slaveholding interest, which is supreme in the East, is clso 
powerful in ."-ome parts of the West. Let this be considered as a 
jjerpetual and a groiving interest in our part of the State, and it 
may throw so much weight on the side of tlie Eastern principle of 
representation, when the hour of decision comes, as to produce a 
compromise, and to secure to the Ea^t a part at least of what she 
claims on the ground of her vast slave property. But let all the 
West, on due consideration, conclude that slavery is a pernicious in- 
stitution, and must be gradually removed ; then, united in our views 
on all the great interests of our West Virginia, we shall meet the 
approaching crisis with inflexible resolution; and West Virginia 
can and must succeed in her approaching struggle for her rights and 
her prosperity. 

The more you consider the subject, the more yc u will be convin- 
ced that both these questions — the white basis and slavery — are of 
vital importance, and so intimately connected, that to insure success 
in either, we must unite them in our discussions both among our- 
selves and with East Virginia. On both should our views and our 
policy be firmi}' settled, when the crisis of 1850 shall arrive. 

It is not the object of this adtlress to discuss the question of re- 
presentation. We leave that subject to the abler management of 
those who have heretofore conducted the discussion. Yet as the 
success of the great measure wbicii we shall advocate in this address, 
will depend much upon our obtaining a just share of representation 
in the Legislature, we call your attention to some facts, for the pui- 
pose of showing, that West V^irginia has heretofore suffered incalcu- 
lably Irom her weakness in the Legislature. We remind you of 
these things, not to excite resentful feelings, but to confirm you in 
your purpose to adhere inflexibly to your just claim of representa- 
tion on the while basis, without compromise. We shall refer to two 
facts only, out of many that might be mentioned. 

Fifty years ago, when the country beyond the Ohio began to be 
opened for settlement, Virginia had already been for years in full 
and undisputed possession of her extensive territory on this side. 
The country between the Alleghany and the Ohio, containing eigh- 
teen millions of acres, much of it excellent soil, and abounding in 
mineral wealth, was an almost unbroken wilderness, and almost in- 
accessible to emigrants, for want of roads through the mountains. 
The feeble and detached settlements applied, and for thirty years 
continued to ^\>\>\y, almost in vain, for legislative aid to open wagon 
roads from the F^astern settlements into tlieir valleys. Let the Acts 
of Assembly for these thirty years of our infancy in West Virginia, 
be examined, and they will show how little, how vei'y little, our 
Eastern mother was vvilling to do to ])romote the growth of her 
nurseling in the mountains. A few thousand dollars out of her rich 
treasury — very few indeed — and now and tiien some arrearages of 
taxes due from the poor settlers in the wilderness, was all that the 



government could bo prevailed on to advance, for the "purpose of 
opening this extensive territory for settlement, and to accommodate 
its secluded inhabitants. 

Now can any man doubt, that if the Legislature had, in the pros- 
perous days of East Virginia, from 1794 to 1824, appropriated only 
ten or twelve thousand dollars a year to make good wagon roads 
through the mountain districts, that West Virginia would have in- 
creased in population and wealtii far more than she did, or could do 
without roads? May we not affirm, that if East Virginia had pur- 
sued that just and enlightened policy. West Virginia would 20 years 
ago have been more populous than she was by 100,000 souls, and 
more wealthy in a still greater proportion ? No man who has seen 
the effect of some lately-constructed roads, in promoting population 
and wealth, can doubt it. And what shows more conclusively the 
blindness or illiberality of this Eastern policy towards the West, is* 
that the public treasury would have been remunerated, fourfold at 
least, by the additional revenue which this early outlay for roads — had 
it been made — would have produced from the taxpayers of West 
Virginia. Here we have one notable instance of what West Vir- 
ginia has suffered from her dependence on an Eastern Legislature. 
Though her growth in spite of Eastern neglect, has enabled her of 
late years to get some valuable improvements made, she is still de- 
pendent for every boon of this kind, upon the will of those Eastern 
people who are now a minority of the Commonwealth. 

The other instance to which we intended to refer, is of still greater 
importance than the former. Many of you remember that in 1832, 
when a negro insurrection in Soudiampton county had filled nearly 
all Virginia with alarm, and made every white man think of the evils 
of slavery, a resolution was introduced into the Legislature, to adopt 
a system of gradual emancipation, by which the State might, in the 
course of 50 years, get rid of the evils of slavery. 

Whatever may be thought of such a measure in reference to East 
Virginia, where the slaves are more numerous than the whites ; there 
can be no rational doubt that in West Virginia, the measure, had it 
been carried 15 years ago, would by this time have wrought a most 
happy change in the condition and prospc-cts of the country : and so 
the people of West Virginia then thought, for they were generally 
and warmly in favor of it, and zealously advocated it through their 
able and patriotic Delegates. But in spite of iheir efforts, it was re- 
jected by the all powerful Eastern majority, though several Eastern 
Delegates joined the West in its support. 

We do not censure our Eastern brethren for opposing this measure 
so far as their part of the State is concerned. But still, we of West 
Virginia must deem ourselves not only unfortunate, but aggrieved, 
when an Eastern majority in ihe Legislature debars us from obtain- 
ing measures conducive to our welfare, because these same measures 
may not suit the policy of East Virginia. 

Though defeated for the lime, the friends of gradual emancipation 



8 

were not in despair. There was a general acknowledgment of the 
evils ol slavery ; and strong hopes were entertained that, in a few 
years, a decided majority of the Legislature would be for ridding the' 
country of this deleterious institution. But these hopes were sadly 
disappointed. East Virginia became more and more adverse, not 
only to emancipation in any mode or form, but to any discussion of 
Ihe subject. Even in our West Virginia, though we believe no ma- 
terial change of SRntiment has taken place, lidle has since been said, 
and nothing done, to effect an object so important to the welfare of 
the country. 

This long silence and apparent apathy on our part, is also in some 
degree owing to our conscious inability to do any thing requirinrr Le- 
gislative action, unless East Virginia be pleased to a°id us, and this 

Tioo^ ^®'''^^" ^'^® ^^°"^^ "°^ ^'°' ^^ ^"y ^''"6 since the debate 
Ol X832. 

But this unfavorable change of sentiment in Virginia, is due chiefly 
to the fanatical violence of those Northern anti-slavery men, who 
iiavebeen usuall- called Abolitionists. 

The excit'^-nient in Great Britain on the subject of West Indian 
slavery, v^as caught by some enthusiasts in this country, and from 
that day to this some thousands of these people have been smitten 
with a sort of moral insanity. A malignani; rage against slave-hol- 
ders — denoted by bitter denunciations and unprincipled calumnies — 
has characterized their proceedings. Many other anti-slavery men, 
led on by indiscreet zeal, but actuated by purer motives, contributed 
to swell the torrent of denunciation, and to alarm the Southern peo- 
ple by incessant attempts to disturb their domestic relations, and to 
drive them into an immediate abolition of slavery. Southern men 
of all parties were indignant at this unjustifiable interference with 
iheir domestic concerns : they knew also that as the principles of 
the abolitionists were erroneous, so the measures which they insisted 
on our adopting, were rash and dangerous. 

The friends of gradual emancipation soon saw that of all the ill 
tvinds that would blow upon their cause, this storm of abolitionism 
tvas the worst. They had to postpone all efforts to effect their ob- 
ject, until this tempest of fanaticism should spend its violence, or 
become less alarming. It has raged during 15 years : and now the 
abolitionists may boast, if they will, that they have done more in 
this time to rivet the chains ol the slave, and to fasten the curse 
of slavery upon the country, than all the pro-slavery men in the 
world have done, or could do, in half a century. They have not, 
by honorable means, liberated a single slave: and they never will, 
by such a course of procedure as they have pursued. On the con- 
trary, they have created new difficulties in the way of all judicious 
schemes of emancipation, by prejudicing the minds of slave-holders, 
and by compelling us to combat their false piinciples and rash 
schemes, in our rear; whilst we are facing the opposition of me»i 
and the natural difficidties of the case, in our front. 



Q 

But, fellow-ciiizens, shall we sufl'er this meddlesome sect of aboli- 
tionists 10 blind our eyes to the evils of slavery, and to tie up our 
liands, when the condition of the country and the welfare of our- 
selves and our children, summon us to immediate action ? We al! 
agree that the abolitionists shall not interfere with any policy that 
we may choose to adopt, in reference to our domestic relations. We 
repudiate all connection wit") themselves, their principles and their 
measures. All that we ask of them, is that they stand aloof, and let 
us and our slaves alone. One thing we feel certain of, that we 
can and do provide better for the welfare of our slaves, than they 
ever did or ever will. What have they ever done, to better the con- 
dition of the slaves whom they have enticed away from their mas- 
ters .'* We venture to affirm, that the majority of the poor fellows 
who have thus been lured away, have regretted the ease and plenty 
which they left behind them. We are not sure that those even, who 
Iiave been paraded, as abolition lions, from city to city, to tell horri- 
ble stories — the more horrible ti)e better — about the cruelly of slave- 
holders — have lorig enjoyed as much comfort in their lying occupa- 
tion, as many a contented inmate of our Southern negro-quarters lias 
enjoyed in his slavery. 

But what of all these abolition manoeuvres ? They are of such 
a character, that they disgrace the party which employs them, and 
disable that party to do as tnuch mischief as they otherwise could. 

Having failed in their first mode of action, by denunciatory pamph- 
lets and newspapers and by petitions to Congress, the most violent 
class of abolitionists have now formed themselves into a political 
party, aiming to subvert the Federal Constitution, which guaranties 
the rights of slaveholders, and to destroy the Federal Union, which 
is the glory and safeguard of us all. Thus they have armed against 
themselves every American patriot: and what is most remarkable, 
they have met, fiom the opposite extreme, those Southern politicians 
and ultra-proslavery men — called chivalry and nullifiers — who so of- 
ten predict and threaten a dissolution of the Union. Thus it is that 
extremes often meet. 

Now when the ultraists on both sides have shown their colors, we 
may leave ihern to the management of the uncorrupted classes of 
American citizens, ivlio will doubtless give a good account of them 
all — whilst we of West Virginia steer our course in the safe mid- 
dle way, and seek to remove the plague of slavery from our limits, 
without incurring the charge of ultra-abolitionism on the one hand, 
or of ultra iiroslaveryism — or whatever it may bo called — on the 
other. Against the one party we affirm the right of slaveholding, 
under present circumstances : against the other party, we affirm the 
expediency of removii.g slavery from West Virginia, and from every 
other State or portion of a State, in which the number of slaves is 
not too large. 

At the same time we avow the principle, that every Sttite, and 
everv great division of a State, ought, in a domestic matter of such 



10 

importance to judgo and act for itself. We disclaim all intention to 
interfere with slavery in East Virginia. We leave it to our brethren 
there, to choose for themselves, whether they will let the institution 
remain as it is, or whether they will modify it or abolish it, in one 
way or in another. Their slave population is relatively eight times 
as large as ours. The same remedy may not be expedient in such 
different stages of a disease. All that we ask of our Eastern breth- 
ren, in regard to this matter, is, that if West Virginia shall call for a 
law to remove slavery from her side of the Blue Ridge, East Vir- 
ginia shall not refuse her consent, because the measure may not be 
palatable to herself. 

Heretofore no such scheme for West Virginia only has been pro- 
posed among us ; and no State has abolished slavery in one part of 
her territory and retained it in another. For this reason some per- 
sons may at first thought consider such a scheme as unfeasible. A 
State composed partly of free, and partially of slaveholding terri- 
tory, may seem to present a political incongruity, and to be incapa- 
ble of conducting its public affairs harmoniously. To relieve the 
minds of those who may feel apprehensions of this sort, we offer the 
following suggestions. 

1. Free States and slaveholding States have, during 5S years, 
lived peaceably and prosperously under one Federal government. 
Sectional jealousies and occasional jars have occurred, but without 
evil consequence. 

2. Nothing in the nature of the case need create difficulty, ex- 
cept the framing of laws that may affect the rights and interests of 
slaveholders. But an amendmcKt of the constitution could easily 
provide lor the security of slaveholders in East Virginia against all 
unjust legislation, arising from the power or the anti-slavery princi- 
ples of the West. 

3. After such an emancipation law as we propose, should be 
passed for West Virginia, no immediate change would take place in 
the institution of slavery among us ; except that masters would pro-* 
bably choose to emancipate or remove from tlie State, a larger num- 
ber of slaves than heretofore. As only the next generation of ne- 
groes would be entitled to emancipation, the law would not begin 
its practical operation for 21 years at least, and then it ivould operate 
gradually for 30 or 40 years lon^sr, before slavery would be extin- 
guished in West Virginia. So that for many years the actual slave 
interest among us would not be greatly diminished. 

4. There is, and long has been, in different parts of Virginia, 
every degree of difference, from the least to the greatest, between 
the slaveholding and non-slaveholding interests of the people. In 
some parts, the slaves are two or three times as numerous as the whites, 
and the slaveholding interest overrules and absorbs every thing. In 
other parts, not one man iu a hundred owns a slave, and the slave- 
holding interest is virtually nothing. In West Virginia at large, the 
slaves being only one-.eighth of the population, and the slaveholding 



11 

population less than one-eighth of the whites, the free interest pre- 
dominates nearly as much as the slave interest predominates in East 
Virginia : so that we have in practical operation, if not in perfection, 
that political incongruity of slave interest and free interest, which is 
feared as a consequence of the measure that we propose. 

5. By allowing West Virginia her just share of representation, 
and, if she call for it, a law for the removal of slavery, East Virginia 
will do more to harmonize the feelings of the State, than she ever 
has done, or can do by a continued refusal. West Virginia being 
then secured in her essential right? and interests, will not desire a 
separation, nor be disposed to disturb the harmony of the Common- 
wealth. So far from aiding tlie designs of the abolitionists, either in 
Congress or in our Legislature, both her leelings and her interests 
will make her more than ever hostile to that pernicious sect. 

G. If East Virginia apprehend, that the delegates from the free 
counties would often speak more freely about slavery matters, than 
she would like to hear in her central city of Richmond ; let her agree 
to remove the seat of government to Staunton, near the centre of 
our territory and of our white population, and she will be free from all 
annoyance of this sort. West Virginia would then appear no more 
like a remote province of East Virginia, and be no longer subject to 
the disadvantage of having all measures affecting her interest, acted 
upon by a Legislature deliberating in the heart of East Virginia, and 
exposed to the powerful influence of a city and a people, whose 
bland manners and engaging hospitalities, are enough to turn both 
the hearts and the heads of us rough mountaineers, whether we be 
legislators or not. 

Having thus removed some grounds of misapprehension and pre- 
judice respecting our views, we shall now proceed, fellow-citizens, 
to lay before you some facts and arguments, which prove the expe- 
diency of abolishing slavery in West Virginia, by a gradual process, 
that shall not cause any inconvenience either to society in general, or 
to slaveholders in particular. 

We use no theoretical or abstract arguments. We ground our 
conclusions upon facts and experience. Though the history of other 
ages and countries would furnish us with useful illustrations, we 
have not room in this address to extend our observations niuch be- 
yond our own age and country. Nor is it necessary that we should ; 
for within these limits we have abundant materials for argument, — 
far more than we shall be able to use on the present occasion. 

No where, since time began, have the two systems of slave labor 
and free labor, been subjected to so fair and so decisive a trial of 
their effects on public prosperity, as in these United States. Here 
the two systems have worked side by side for ages, under such equal 
circumstances both political and physical, and with such ample lime 
and opportunity for each to work out its proper effects, — that all must 
admit the expermient to bo now complete, and the result decisive. 
No man of common sense, who has observed this result, can doubt 



12 

for a moment, that the system of free labor promotes the growth and 
prosperity of States, in a much higher degree than the system of 
slave labor. In the first settlement of a country, when labor is scarce 
and dear, slavery may give a temporary impulse to improvement : 
but even this is not the case, except in warjn climates, and where 
free men are scarce and either sickly or lazy : and when we have said 
this, we have said all that experience in the United States warrants 
us to say, in favor of the policy of employing slave labor. 

It is the common remark of all who have travelled through the 
United States, that the free States and the slave States, exhibit a 
striking contrast in their appearance. In the older free States are 
seen all the tokens of prosperity : — a dense and increasing popula* 
lion; — thriving villages, towns and cities; — a neat and productive 
agriculture, growing manufactures and active commerce. 

In the older parts of the slave States, — with a few local excep- 
tions, — are seen, on the contrary, too evident signs of stagnation or 
of positive decay, — a sparse population, — a slovenly cultivation 
spread over vast fields, that are wearing out, among others already 
worn out and desolate; — villages and tov;ns, " few and far between," 
rarely growing, often decaying, sometimes mere remnants of what 
they were, sometimes deserted ruins, haunted only by owls ; — gene- 
rally no manufactures, nor even trades, except the indispensable 
few ; — commerce and navigation abandoned, as far as possible, to 
the people of the free States ; — and generally, instead of the siir 
and bustle of industry, a dull and dreamy stillness, broken, if bro- 
ken at all, only by the wordy brawl of politics. 

But we depend not on general statements of this sort, however 
unquestionable their truth may be. We shall present you with sta- 
tistical facts, drawn from public documents of the highest authority. 
We shall compare slave States with free States, in general and in 
particular, and in so many points of view, that you cannot mistake in 
forming your judgment of their comparative prosperity. 

Density and increase of population are, especially in the United 
States, both an element and a criterion of prosperity. The men of 
a State are its first element of power — not only military power, and 
political power — but what is of more importance, 'productive power. 
The labor of men produces wealth, and with it the means of all hu- 
man comfort and improvement. The more men there are on a 
square mile, the more power there is on that square mile, to create 
every thing that conduces to the welfare of man. We know that 
the natural resources of every country are limited ; and that whenever 
there are men enough in a country, to improve all its resources of 
wealth to the best advantage, increase of population becomes an evil. 
But no State in this Union has yet approached that point ; no slave 
State has advanced half way to it. England still prospers with more 
than 250 inhabitants to the square mile ; Virginia languishes with 
only 20, though she is by nature almost as richly endowed as Eng- 
land. Massachusetts thrives with 100 inhabitants to the square mile; 



13 

Virginia, considering her natural advantages, ought to thrive as well 
with a much larger number ; and so she would, if she had the same 
quahty of men on her soil. 

Without further preface, we proceed to compare 

1. The progress of 7}opulatio7i in the free Stales and the slave- 
holding States. 

It has so happened that, from the beginning, these two classes of 
States have been nearly equal in number and in natural advantages ; 
only the slaveholJing States hive always had the larger share of ter- 
ritory, with a soil and climate peculiarly adapted to the richest pro- 
ducts of Agriculture. 

At the first census in the year 1790, these two classes of States 
were about equal in population : tlie free States had 1,968,000 in- 
habitants, and the slave States 1,961,000 ; so that tiiey started even 
in the race of population ; for the superior extent of the slave States 
gave them an advantage in the race, far more than equivalent to their 
small inferiority of numbers. 

Twenty years later, it was found that the free States had gained 
276,000 inhabitants more than the slave States; though Louisiana 
with her population, had in the mean time been added to the latter. 

The free States continued to run ahead, gaining more and more 
on the slave Stales at each successive census, up to the last in 1S40, 
when they had a population of 9,729,000, against 7,320,000 in the 
slave States. 

This result is more surprising, when we consider that in 1790, the 
slave States had a territory embracing 220,000 square miles, against 
100,000 square miles in the free Stales; and that as new States and 
Territories were added to the old, the class of slave States still gain- 
ed in Territory, as they continued to fall behind in population. In 
1840, the slaveholding Territory, actually inhabited, contained an 
area of 580,000 square miles, at least ; while the inhabited free Ter- 
ritory, contained about 360,000 square miles. The slave country 
was therefore less than half as thickly peopled as the free country. 

Some advocates of slavery apologize for this result, by ascribing 
it to foreign emigration, which, they say, goes almost wholly to the 
free States. We.deny that it goes almost loholly to the free States : 
but if it did ; what are vve to infer from the fact ? That slavery 
does not check the growth of States ? No ; but on the contrary, 
that it checks their growth in various ways; partly by repelling emi- 
grants, who would come from the free States and from foreign coun- 
tries — which it does : and partly by driving out free laborers from 
the slave States into the free States — which it does, also. 

But this general comparison betsveen tiie two classes of States, 
does not truly nieasure the effect of slavery in checking the grovvth 
and prosperity of States; because, in the first place, it takes in the 
new thinly peopled slave States, where slave labor operating on 
new soils of the best quality, has not had time to do its work of 
impoverishment and desolation ; and because, in the second place, it 
takes in some States, both old and new, in which the slaves are com- 



14 

parativcly few, and a predominance of free labor counteracts the 
destructive tendencies of slaver}'. Such are tlie oUl State of Mary- 
land and the new State of Missouri; besides others — as Kentucky 
and Tennessee — in whicli slavery, though deeply injurious, is itselt 
held in check by a free laboring population. 

We will therefore take the old free States, and compare them 
with the old slave States of Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia, in 
which slave labor predominates. 

New England and the middle States of New York, New Jersey, 
and Pennsylvania, contained in 1790, 1,968,000 inhabitants, and in 
1840, 6,760,000 ; having gained, in this period, 243 per cent. 

The four old slave States had in 1790, a population of 1,473,000 ; 
and in 1840, of 3,279,000, having gained, in the same period, 122 
per cent, just about half as much in proportion, as the free States. 
They ought to have gained about twice as much ; for they had at 
first only seven inhabitants to the square mile, when the free States 
not only had upwards of tvvelve, but on the whole much inferior ad- 
vantages of soil and climate. Even cold, barren New England, 
though more than twice as thickly peopled, grew in population at a 
faster rate than these old slave States. 

About half the territory of these old slave State^j is new country, 
and has comparatively few slaves. On this part the increase of 
population has chiefly taken place. On the old slave-labored low- 
lands,a singular phenomenon has appeared : there, within the bounds 
of these rapidly growing United States, — yes, there, population has 
been long at a stand ; yes, over wide regions — especially in Virgi- 
nia — it has declined, and a new wilderness is gaining upon the cul- 
tivated land ! What has done this work of desolation ? Not war, 
nor pestilence ; not oppression of rulers, civil or ecclesiastical ; — but 
slavery, a curse more destructive in its effects than any of them. 
It were hard to find, in old king-ridden, priest-ridden, overtaxed, 
Europe, so large a country, where within twenty years past, such a 
growing poverty and desolation have appeared. 

It is in the last period of ten years, from 1S30 to 1840, that this 
consuming plague of slavery has shown its worst effects in the old 
Southern States. Including the increase in their newly settled, and 
Western counties, they gained in population only Ih per cent; while 
cold, barren, thickly peopled, New England gained 15, and the old 
middle States, 26 per cent. East V^irginia actually fell off 26,000 
in population ; and with the exception of Richmond and one or 
two other towns, her population continues to decline. Old Virginia 
was the first to sow this land of ours with slavery; she is also the 
first to reap the full harvest of destruction. Her lowland neighbors 
of Maryland and the Carolinas, were not far behind at the seeding; 
nor are they far behind at the ingathering of desolation. Most sor- 
ry are we for this fallen condition of ''The Old Dominion," and of 
her neighbors : but such being the fact, we state it, as an argument 
and a warning to our West Virginia. It demonstrates the ruinous 
eflects of slavery upon the countries in which the longest and most 
complete trial of it has been made. 



15 

There arc certain drugs, of which large doses arc poisonous, but 
small ones arc innocent or even salutary. Slavery is not of this 
kind. Large doses of it kill, it is true ; but smaller doses, mix them 
as you will, are sure to sicken and debilitate the body politic. This 
can be abundantly jjroved by examples. For one, let us take the 
rich and beautiful Stateof Kentucky, compared with her free neigh- 
bor Ohio. The slaves of Kentucky have composed less than a 
fourth part of her population. But mark their effect upon the com- 
parative growth of the State. In the year 1800, Kentucky contain- 
ed 221,000 inhabitants, and Ohio, 45,000. In forty years, the popu- 
lation of Kentucky had risen to 780,000; that of Ohio to 1,519,000. 
This wonderful difference could not be owing to any natural supe- 
riority of the Ohio country. Kentucky is nearly as large, nearly 
as fertile, and quite equal in other gifts of nature. She had greatly 
the advantage loo in the outset of this forty years race of popula- 
tion. She started with 5i inhabitants to the square mile, and came 
out with 20 : Ohio started with one inhabitant to the square mile, 
and came out with 38. Kentucky had full possession of her terri- 
tory at the beginning. Much of Ohio was then, and for a long time 
afterwards, in possession of the Indians. Ohio is by this time con- 
siderably more than twice as thickly peopled as Kentucky ; yet she 
still gains both by natural increase and by the influx of emigrants; 
while Kentucky has for twenty years been receiving much fewer 
emigrants than Ohio, and multitudes of her citizens have been yearly 
moving off to newer and yet newer countries. 

In Tennessee the proportion of slaves is about the same, and the 
effects are about the same, as in Kentucky. Missouri is too new a 
country to afford instruction on this subject; but her physical ad- 
vantages are drawing such a multitude of free emigrants into her, 
that her small amount of slavery must, ere long, give way and van- 
ish before "the genius of universal emancipation." 

Maryland has comparatively few slaves, and these are found 
chiefly about her old tide water shores, where like the locusts, they 
have eaten up nearly every green thing. On the whole, the slaves 
of Maryland have composed betv/een a fourth and a fifth part of her 
population. Her progress under this dead weight, has been much 
slower than that of her neighbor Pennsylvania; and would be com- 
pletely stopped, if this free neighbor did not send a vivifying influ- 
ence into her upper counties and her city of Baltimore. 

Our own West Virginia furnishes conclusive evidence, that slave- 
ry, in all quantities and degrees, has a pernicious influence on the 
public welfare. But we reserve this example to a subsequent head 
of the argument, where we can present it in a more complete form. 

We have now seen how slavery, when in full operation, first 
checks, and then stops, the growth of population ; and finally turns 
it into a decline. We have seen also that slavery, when in partial 
operation, or mixed with a larger proportion of free labor, hangs 
like a dead weight upon a country, and makes it drag heavily on- 
wards in the march of population. 

Increase of population depends upon increase in the means of 



16 

living. Whenever the three great hranches of protective industry, 
Agricuhurc, Manufactures and Commerce, or any of them, continue 
to yield increasing products, the population will increase at the same 
rate; because then industry produces a surplus beyond the present 
wants ot the people, and more families can be supported. This is 
the general rule. The only exceptions to it are partial and tempo- 
rary in their occurrence. Population may increase to a small de- 
gree, while the yearly products of industry are stationary ; but then 
it can be, only l)y allowing to each individual a reduced share of 
products. In this case poverty and misery increase with the popu- 
lation, and must soon stop its progress. In this country, where emi- 
gration to new territories is so easy, the people are sure to relieve 
themselves by emigration, whenever the means of living begin to 
fail in their native place. Without some pressure of this sort, at- 
tachment to their native land is ordinarily sufficient to prevent men 
from emigrating. Some may emigrate without any feeling of ne- 
cessity ; but as many, if not more, will not emigrate, until want 
pinches them sorely. 

We may lay it down as a general rule, therefore, that the quanti- 
ty of emigration from a State is a pretty accurate index of its com- 
parative prosperity. If few leave it, we may justly infer that its 
industry is thriving — sufficiently so to support the natural increase 
of its population, and to make nearly all contented at home. But 
if a large and perpetual stream of emigrants is pouring ouc of it in 
search of better fortune elsewhere; — it is an infallible symptom of 
one of two things; either that the country has no more natural 
sources from which industry may draw increasing products, — or that 
the people are defficient in enterprise and skill to improve the re- 
sources of their country. 

Let us apply this rule to Virginia, and how will she appear ? We 
take it for granted, that the people of Virginia multiply as fast, 
naturally, as the people of other States — that is, at the rate of 33i 
per cent in ten years ; so that if none emigrated, the number 
would be increased by one third in that period of time. 

Compare this natural increase with the census returns, and it ap- 
pears that in the ten years from 1S30 to 1S40, Virginia lost by emi- 
gration no fewer than 375,000 of her people, of whom East Vir- 
ginia lost 304,000 and West Virginia 71,000. At this rate Vir- 
ginia supplies the West every ten years with a population equal in 
number to the population of the State of Mississippi in 1840 ! 

Some Virginia politicians proudly — yes, proudly, — fellow-citi- 
zens, — call our old Commonwealth, The Mother of States ! These 
enlightened patriots might pay her a still higher compliment, by 
calling her The Grandmother of States. For our part, we are 
grieved and mortitied, to think of the lean and haggard condition 
of our venerable mother. Her black children have sucked her so 
dry, that now, for a long time past, she has not milk enough for her 
oflspring, either black or white. 

But, seriously, fellow-citizens, we esteem it a sad, a humiliating, 
fact, which should penetrate the heart of every Virginian, that from 



17 

the year 1790 to this lime, Virginia has lost more people by emigra- 
tion, than all ihe old free States together. Up to 1S40, when the 
last census was taken, she had lost more by nearly 300,000. She 
has sent — or we should rather say, she has driven from her soil — at 
least one third of all the emigrants, who have gone from the old States 
to the new. More than another third have gone from the other old 
slave States. Many of these multitudes, who have left the slave 
States, have shunned the regions of slavery, and settled in the free 
countries of the West. These were generally industrious and en- 
terprising white men, who found by sad experience, tliat a country 
of slaves was not the country for them. It is a truth, a certain truth, 
that slavery drives free laborers— farmers, mechanics, and all, and 
some of the best of them too — out of the country, and Jills their j^laces 
with 7iegroes. 

What is it but slavery that makes Marylanders, Carolinians, and 
especially old Virginians and new Virginians — fly their country at such 
a rate ? Some go because they dislike slavery and desire to get 
away from it : others, because they have gloomy forebodings of what 
is to befal the slave States, and wish to leave their families in a 
country of happier prospects : others, because they cannot get profita- 
ble employment among slaveholders: others, industrious and high- 
spirited working men, will not stay in a country where slavery de-< 
grades the working man : others go because they see that their coun- 
try, for some reason, does not prosper, and that other countries, not 
far off, are prospering, and will afford better hopes of prosperity to 
themselves : others, a numerous class, who are slaveholders and can- 
not live without slaves, finding that they cannot live longer with them 
on their worn out soils, go to seek better lands and more profitable 
crops, where slave labor may yet for a while enable them and their 
children to live. 

But you know well, fellow-citizens, that this perpetual drain of 
our population, does not arise from a failure of natural resources for 
living in Virginia. How could it, while so much good soil is yet a 
wilderness, and so much old soil could be fertilized ; and while such 
resources for manufactures and commerce lie neglected .'* 

Had Virginia retained her natural increase, or received as many 
emigrants as she sent away, from the year 1790 to the present time, 
she would now have had three times her actual population ; and, had 
all been Iree-men, each laboring voluntarily, and for his own benefit, 
all could have prospered in her wide and richly-gifted territory. 

The true cause of this unexampled emigration is, that no branch 
of industry flourishes, or can flourish among us, so long as slavery is 
established by law, and the labor of the country is done chiefly by 
men, who can gain nothing by assiduity, by skill, or by economy. 
All the older slaveholding States have proved this by sad experience. 
We shall make good the assertion by setting before you, 

2. ,/2 comparative vieio of the Sericulture^ the Manufactures 
3 



and the Commerce, of the old Jrce Slates, and the old slave 
Slates, — especially T^irgiivia. 

Thus we shall lay open the immediate causes of the vast emitrra- 
tion from our State, and of the slow growth of West Virginia and 
Kentucky, in comparison with the neighboring free couturies. 

You will observe also, how every class of facts that bear at all upon 
the subject, lead uniformly to the same conclusion ; how every line 
of inquiry always points to slavery, as the original cause of inferior 
prosperity or of positive decline. 

In our statements we always go upon the best evidence which can 
be had, — generally officia! docume.its. 

We begin with 

The Jigriculture of the old States. 

The census of 1840 embraces returns of the number of livestock 
in each State ; — the estimated quantities of grain and other crops 
raised the preceding year ; — the value of poultry, of the products 
of dairies, orchards and market gardens ; — the quantities of fire- 
wood, lumber, tar, &Co sold in each State ; — together with the num- 
ber of persons employed in agriculture. 

The plan was to obtain a complete view of the agriculture of the 
United States. Many errors undoubtedly nxist in these returns, 
partly from wrong estimates of the larmers, partly from the negligence 
of the Deputy Marshals who took the census. Some blunders of 
the latter are manifest upon the face of the returns ; but these may 
sometimes be corrected, if not perfectly, yet sufficiently for all use- 
ful purposes. 

Be it observed, that what we want to know on the present occa- 
sion, is not the quantity to a bushel, nor the value to a dollar, of 
the agricultural products of each State ; but such a comparative view 
of what the lands of t!ie several States produce, in quantity and in 
value, that we may form a substantially correct judgment of the rela- 
tive productiveness of their agricultural industry. This we can do 
beyond a reasonable doubt, by a judicious use of the census. Per- 
sons acquainted with this sort of investigations know, that although 
each farmer in reporting his crops might commit some error, yet 
when all the reports came to be summed up, the errors would tend 
to balance one another; and that, as the same sorts of errors would 
probably be committed in all the States, the returns might, on the 
whole, be comparatively right, though each one was positively wronc:. 
Thus, if the returns for Virginia should bo one-fourth below the 
truth, and those for New York one-fourth below the truth ; each 
would be erroneous in itself, yet the two would truly represent \.\\Qcom- 
liarative products of agriculture in these States : and tliis is all that 
we want in the present argument. But again, suppose that the errors 
did not tally so exactly ; — for example, that (he returns for Virginia 
were one-fourth below the truth, but for New York only one-fifth be- 



19 

low the truth ; yet if it appeared by the returns, that the agriculture 
of Virginia was only half &s profitable as that of New York ; thougli 
tlie result would not show accurately hoiv much less profitable our 
agriculture was, than that of New York ; yet it would truly show the 
fact, that it was muck less profitable; — and this degree of truth is 
sufiicient for our argument. 

Now if any man deny that this sufficient degree of truth can be 
deduced from the census ; he is bound to sustain his denial, by con- 
victing the census of a greater amount of error than we have made 
allowance for ; — and that too, in the very same returns that we use m 
our calculations. But no man alive can do this ; for these returns 
are incomparably the best evidence that exists on the siih/ect, and are 
substantially confirmed by the agricultural census of New York — 
(since madej — so far as that State is concerned; and in fact, generally 
confirmed by all sorts of evidence, so far as any exists. 

In the returns of hemp and flax raised in Virginia, there is an evi- 
dent blunder of ihe Deputy Marshals in the counties of Bedford, 
Prince VVilliam, Lee and Lewis: where hmdred ivcights reported, 
seem to have been set down as tons. With this exception, no great 
error appears. We have made the correction in our calculations ; 
but enormous as the error seems to be, it might stand without ma- 
terially varying the comparative results. 

By estimating the value of the yearly products of each State, and 
dividing the same by the number of persons employed in making 
those products, we find the average value produced by each person : 
and by comparing the results of the calculation for the several States, 
we discover the comparative productiveness of Agricultural labor in 
the Stotes. This is wiiat we want for our argument. 

Professor Tucker, late of the University of Virginia, in his use- 
ful book, on The Progress of Population, &c., has given in detail 
a calculation of this sort. lie was certainly not partial to the North 
in his estimates. We have carefully examined them ; and think 
that his valuations of products are in some particulars erroneous. 
We think, also, that he has omitted some elements necessary to an 
accurate result. We have therefore in our own calculations ar- 
rived at results somewhat different from his ; yet so far as our argu- 
ment is concerned, °the difference is immaterial. We can therefore 
assure you, fellow-citizens, that no sort of calculation, founded on 
any thing like truth or reason, can bring out a result materially dif- 
ferent from ours. 

We have not room here for the particulars that enter into the cal- 
culations : we can only give the results themselves. 

The general results, according to both Mr. Tucker and ourselves, 
are as follows : 

In New England, agricultural industry yields an annual value, 
averaging about one hundred and eighty dollars to the hand, that is, 
for each person en)ployed. 

lu the middle States of New York, New Jersey aud Pennsylvania, 



20 

the average is about two hundred and sixty-five or two hundred and 
seventy dollars to the hand. 

And in the old slave States, South of the Potomac, the average is 
about 130 dollars to the hand. This, according to our calculation, 
is rather above the average for East Virginia, but below that for West 
Virginia. Tlie average for all Virginia is about 138 dollars. 

Thus it appears by the best evidence which the case admits of, 
that the farmers of the middle States, with their free labor, produce 
more than twice as great a value to the hand, as the farmers and 
planters of the old slave States ; and that even the New Englanders, 
on their poor soils and under their wintry sky, make nearly forty per 
cent more, to the hand, than the old Southerners make in the " sunny 
South," with the advantage of their valuable staples, cotton and to- 
bacco. 

In Maryland, the result is intermediate between the average of the 
North and that of the South : and this agrees strikingly with her con- 
dition as a half-slave Slate ; for lower Maryland is cultivated by ne- 
groes, and has a languishing agriculture, as well as a stationary popu- 
lation : but upper Maryland is cultivated by free labor, and has a 
thriving agriculture with a growing population. 

These results, founded on the best evidence, and confirmed by 
general observation, are for substanco undubitably correct, and can- 
not be overthrown. 

Now it is admitted on all hands, that slave labor is better adapted 
to agriculture, than to any other branch of industry ; and that, if not 
good for agriculture, it is really good for nothing. 

Therefore, since in agriculture, slave labor is proved to be far less 
productive than free labor, — slavery is demonsti- cited to be not only 
tmproji table, but dcevly ivjurious to the 'public 'prosperity. 

Wo do not mean that slave labor can never earn any thing for him 
that employs it. The question is between free labor and slave labor. 
He that chooses to employ a sort of labor, that yields only half as 
much to the hand as another sort would yield, makes a choice that is 
not only unprofitable, but deeply injurious to his interest. 

Agriculture in the slave States may be characterized in general by 
two epithets — extensive — exhaustive — which in all agricultural coun- 
tries forebode two things — impoverishment — depopidation. The gen- 
eral system of slaveholding farmers and planters, in all times and 
places, has been, and now is, and ever will be, to cultivate much 
land, badly, for present gaiu — in short, to kill the goose that lays the 
golden egg. They cannot do otherwise with laborers who work by 
compulsion, for the benefit only of their masters ; and whose sole in- 
terest in the matter is, to do as little and to consume as much as pos- 
sible. 

This ruinous system of large farms cultivated by slaves, showed 
its effects in Italy, ISOO years ago, when the Roman empire was at 
the height o( its grandeur. 

Pliny, a writer of that age, in his Natural Plistory, (Book 18, ch. 



21 

1 — 7,) tells us, that while the small farms of former times were cul- 
tivated by freemen, and even great commanders did not disdain to 
labor with their own hands, agriculture flourished, and provisions 
were abundant : but that afterwards, when the lands were engrossed 
by a i'ew great proprietors, and cultivated by fettered and branded 
slaves, the country was ruined, and corn had to be imported. The 
same system was spreading ruin over the provinces, and thus the 
prosperity of the empire was undermined. Pliny denounces as the 
worst of all, the system of having large estates in the country culti- 
vated by slaves, or indeed, says he, *' to have any thing done by men 
loho labor loithout hope of reivard.^^ 

So Livy, the great Roman historian, observed, some years before 
Pliny, (Book G, ch. 12,) that "innumerable multitudes of men for- 
merly inhabited those parts of Italy, where, in his time, none but 
slaves redeeraed'the country from desertion ;" — that is, a dense popu- 
lation of free laborers had been succeeded by a sparse population of 
slaves. 

In further confirmation of our views of the unproductiveness of 
slave labor, when employed in agriculture, we call your earnest at-* 
tention, fellow-citizens, to an address delivered to the Agricultural 
Clubs of Mecklenburg, Va., and Granville, N. C, on the 4th of 
July last, by James Bruce, Esq. 

Mr. Bruce is an intelligent gentleman, and one of the largest slave- 
holders of Virginia. His opinion of slave labor is therefore entitled 
to great weight. 

We have room for only a few extracts from his Address. Alter 
an estimate of the value of slave labor on the exhausted soil of Vir- 
ginia, compared with its value in cultivating sugar and cotton on 
the exuberantly fertile bottoms of Louisiana, he says; "This cal- 
culation makes the average product of slave labor in Virginia a lit- 
tle over 22 dollars [a year, for each slave.] Thus we see that the 
profits of slave labor in Louisiana are more than four times greater 
than in Virginia. The inference seems to be very clear, if there be 
the remotest approach to accuracy in these calculations, that a large 

portion of our negroes should be sent to the South West. 1 doubt 

whether every man who owns more than ten working hands, would 
not be better off by the sale or removal of all beyond that number. 
But, it may be said, shall we part with so large a portion of our la- 
bor, and leave our lands to waste ? Certainly if the labor be un- 
productive, it is folly to keep it. The slave adds nothing to the 
moral and physical strength of the country, and if his labor be 
profitless, of course he is a nuisance, and the sooner we rid our- 
selves of hiin the better. His place will soon be sujiplied with a 
better population, and in the meantime the poorer lands will be 
thrown out of cultivation. The poorer lands in cultivation scarce- 
ly produce returns beyond the support of the laborers who cultivate 

them. But, gentlemen, (continues Mr. Bruce) there is another 

view of this question, which should urge us to immediate removal. 
*B.lllook to the period when the negro must leave Virginia and 



22 

Noi'th Carolina. There is now a demand for this population, and 
the new Stales of the South arc anxious to receive it. The time is 
app) oach'uig ivhcn this demand may ceu&e,^' andwhai their doors 
marj he closed against the admission oj our slaves. Is it prudent 
to lose the present opportunity ? Is it not better to commence the 
work at once, and to do now what we may be unable to do, when 
the emergency becomes more jiressing?" 

" Suppose (says Mr. Bruce again) all this dead capital, now in- 
vested in slaves, were to become an active monied capital, how ma- 
ny manufactories might be built ? How many improvements might 
be made ? Capital would attract labor,! labor for our workshops 
and our fields. IVe should soon have a dense population, ivhich 
would give, schools to our cltildrcn, a market to our farmers, and thvse 
railroads ivhich ive now clamor for, but which our yoverty and a 
sjiarse jjOimlaUon 1)1 aces far hcyond our rcach.''^ 

Every sentence in these extracts contains an important truth ; 
and especially do the lines that we have marked with Italic letters 
deserve the ir.aturest consideration of every citizen of Virginia. 

Agriculture, according to Mr. Bruce, cannot llourish among us, 
because slave labor is unproductive, and keej)s down the population, 
— also because it prevents the growth of manufactures, and there- 
by deprives our farmers of a home market, the most valuable of 
all ; — also because it disables ihe country to construct railroads and 
canals, to facilitate trade and ti'avel ; and finally, we may add, be- 
cause it destroys the spirit of industry and enterprise in the white 
population, and thus prevents them from doing what is yet in their 
power to do for the improvement of the country. 

Thus it comes to pass that lower Virginia with stores of fertili- 
zing marl on her extensive shores, still goes on to impoverish pro- 
bably ten times as much land as she fertilizes ; — that the valley, 
though full of limestone and fertile subsoil, is on the Jvhole becom- 
ing more exhausted by a too wide-spread and shallow cultivation; — 
and that West Virginia in general, — to mention but one of many 
particulars, — still leaves unoccupied the cheapest and the best sheep- 
walks in the United States, and confines her husbandry to a few old 
staple products ; while New York and Vermont, in their snowy cli- 
mate, gain millions of dollars annually by sheep-husbandry. 

In 1840, Vermont had 160 sheep to the square mile, and New 
York, in her Northern districts, nearly as niany : whilst Virginia 
had only 20 to the square mile, — few of them fine-wooled sheep, 
and these few chiefly on her Northern border, near free Pennsyl- 
vania. 

No doubt sheep could be kept among our mountains, at one third 

•We will add to Mr. Biucc's remark, iliat the time is not distant, when the 
Southern demand tor slaves must cease, and the surplus of this population 
in old Virginia be diffused over West Virginia — as we may show before wo 
close this address. 

file means free labor; and thus suggests his opinion of the superior pro- 
ductiveness of free labor, for which he would maUc room by removing tho 
(klaves. 



23 

of what llicy cost In tliosc cold Nortlicrn countries, where they 
must be stabled and fod duraig the five snowy months. 

Suppose that the mountains of Virginia were as well stocked with 
improved breeds of sheep as those North countries ; they would 
now be pastured by six millions of those useful animals ; whoso 
yearly product of wool and lambs would be worth seven or eight 
millions of dollars; and the keeping of them would furnisli profit- 
able occupation for 12,000 families of free citizens. Then how 
changed would be the scene ! Our tlosolate mouniains enlivened 
with flocks; and ten thousand now silent nooks and dells, vocal 
with the songs of Liberty, — ''The Mountain Nymph, sweet Liber- 
ty"! — Why is it not so in our mountains ? — They who keep slaves 
cannot keep sheep. The occupation requires care; but what do 
slaves care? Poor wretches ! what should make them care? 

A few significant facts will conclude this sketch of our slavc-syg- 
tem of agriculture. The towns and cities of lower Virginia are sup- 
plied witli a great part of their hay, butter, potatoes, and other ve- 
getables, not from the farms of Virginia, but from those of the free 
States. And even our great pastoral valley imports cheese in large 
quantities from the North. 

Next we shall notice briefly 

The Influence of Slavery on Manufactures. 

It matters not to our argument, whether a high tariff or a low ta- 
riff be thought best for the country. Whatever aid the tariff may 
give to manufactures, it gives the same in all parts of the United 
States. Under the protective tarills formerly enacted, manufactures 
have grown rapidly in the free States; but no tariff has been able 
to push a slaveholding State into this important line of industry. 
Under the present revenue tariff, manufactures still grow in the 
North ; and the old South, as might be expected, exhibits no move- 
ment, except the customary one of emigration. We hear indeed, 
once in a while, a loud report in Southern newspapers, that " The 
South is waking up," because some new cotton mill, or other manu- 
facturing establishment,^has been erected in a slave State: a sure 
sign that in the slave States an event of this sort is extraordinary. 
In the free States it is so ordinary, as to excite little attention. 

Even the common mechanical trades do not flourish in a slave 
Stale. Some mechanical operations must, indeed, b(3 performed in 
every civilized country; but the general rule in the South is, to im- 
port from abroad every fabricated thing that can be carried in ships, 
such as household furniture, boats, boards, laths, carts, ploughs, axes 
and axehelves, besides innumerable other things, which free com- 
munities are accustomed to make for themselves. What is most 
wonderful, is, that the forests and iron-mines of the South sup])ly, 
in great part, the materials out of which these things are made. The 
Northern freemen come with their ships, carry home the timber 
and pig-iron, work them up, supply their own wants with a part, 
and then sell the rest at a good profit in the Southern markets. — 



24 

Now, although mechanics, by setting up their shops in the South, 
could save all these freights and profits ; yet so it is, that Northern 
mechanics will not settle in the South, and the Southern mechanics 
are undersold by their Northern competitors. 

Now connect with these wondertul facts another fact, and the 
mystery is solved. The number of mechanics in different parts of 
the South, is in the inverse ratio of the number of slaves: or in 
other words, where the slaves form the largest proportion of the in- 
habitants, there the mechanics and manufacturers form the least. In 
those parts only where the slaves are comparatively few, are many 
mechanics and artificers to be found-, but even in these parts they 
do not flourish, as the same useful class of men flourish in the free 
States. Even in our Valley of Virginia, remote from the sea, 
many of our mechanics can hardly stand against Northern compe- 
tition. This can be attributed only to slavery, which paralyzes our 
energies, disperses our population, and keeps us few and poor, in 
spite of the bountiful gifts of nature, with which a benign Provi- 
dence has endowed our country. 

Of all the States in this Union, not one has on the whole such 
various and abundant resources for manufacturing, ns our own Vir- 
ginia, both East and West. Only think of her vast forests of tim- 
ber, her mountains of iron, her regions of stone coal, her valleys of 
limestone and marble, her fountains of salt, her immense sheep- 
walks for wool, her vicinity to the cotton fields, her innumerable 
waterfalls, her bays, harbors and rivers for circulating products on 
every side; — in short every material and every convenience neces- 
sary for manufacturing industry. 

Above all, think of Richmond, nature's chosen site for the great- 
est manufacturing city in America — her beds of coal and iron, just 
at hand — her incomparable water-power — her tide water navigation, 
conducting sea vessels from the foot of her falls, — and above them 
her fine canal to the mountains, through which lie the shortest 
routes from the Eastern tides to the great rivers of the West and 
the South West. Think also that this Richmond in old Virginia, 
« the mother of Slates," has enjoyed these unparalleled advantages 
ever since the United States became a nation ; — and then think 
again, that this same Richmond, the metropolis of all Virginia, has 
fewer manufactures than a third rate New England town ; — fewer — 
not than the new city of Lowell, which is beyond all comparison, — 
but fewer than the obscure place called Fall River, among the bar- 
ren hills of Massachusetts : — and then fellow-citizens, what will 
you think, — what musi you think — of the cause of this strange 
phenomenon ? Or, to enlarge the scope of the question : What 
must you think has caused Virginians in general to neglect their 
superlative advantages for manufacturing industry ? — to disregard 
the evident suggestions of nature, pointing out to them this fruitful 
source of population, wealth and comfort ? 

Say not that this state of things is chargeable to the apathy of 
Vn-ginians. That is nothing to the purpose, for it does not go to 
the bottom of the subject. What causes the apathy 1 That is the 



25 

question. Some imagine that they give a good reason wlien (leav- 
ing out the apathy) they say, that Virginians are devoted exclusive- 
ly to agriculture. But why should they be, when their agriculture 
IS lading them, and they are flying by tens of thousands from their* 
worn out fields to distant countries? Necessity, we are told by 
these reasoners, drive the New Englanders from agriculture in their 
barren country, to trade and manufactures. So it did : Necessity 
drives all mankind to labors and shil'ls for a living. Has necessity^ 
the mother of invention, ever driven Virginians to trpde and manu- 
factures? No; but it drives them in multitudes from their native 
country. They cannot be driven to commerce and manufactures. 
What is the reason of that? If a genial climate and a once-fertile 
soil wedded them to agriculture, they should have wedded them al- 
so to their native land. Yet when agriculture fails them at home, 
rather than let mines, and coal beds, and waterfalls, and timber- 
forests, and the finest tide rivers anil harbors in America, alluro 
them to manufactures and commerce, they will take their negroes 
and emigrate a thousand miles. This remarkable fact, that they will 
quit their country rather than their ruinous system of agriculture, 
proves that their institution of slavery disqualifies them to pursue 
any occupation, except their same ruinous system of agriculture. 
We admit that some few individuals should be excepted from this 
conclusion: but these few being excepted, we have given you the 
conclusion of the whole matter; and as Lorenzo Dow used to say — 
You cannot deny it. 

But many Virginians, from the rarity of manufactures among 
them, are apt to conceive so largely of those that they see or hear 
of in our State, that they can hardly be persuaded of the exceeding 
deficieticy of Virginia in this branch of industry. Therefore, in 
order to establish the truth of all that we have said on this subject, 
we shall give you from the census of 1840, a comparative view of 
the manufactures of some of the Free States, and of Maryland and 
Virginia. We go no farther South in our comparison, but remark 
what is well known to be true, that the farther South, and the lar- 
ger the proportion of slaves, the fewer are the manufactures of the 
country. 

We begin with Iron-making, which, although an agricultural 
operation according to the political economists, is however common- 
ly classed with manufactures. In the returns of the census for Vir- 
ginia, there is an evident blunder ; one furnace in Brunswick county 
being reported to have made 5000 tons of cast metal. We have 
reduced this to 500 tons; which cannot be below the truth. With 
this exception, the returns for Virginia are probably correct. Those 
for some of the Northern States are certainly defective — but we 
take them as they are. 

We put together the three New England States of Vermont, 

Massachusetts and Connecticut, which aie in size and resources for 

iron-making, equal to about one-third of Virginia. New York is 

inferior to Virginia in iron mines, and Pennsylvania about equal. 

3 



26 

New Jersey and Maryland are not half bo richly furnished with 
ore-beds as our State. 

Pulling cast iron and bar iron together for brevity's sake, we find 
by the census that the three New England States made about 33,- 
obo tons a year; New York 82,000 tons ; New Jersey 18,000 tonsj 
Maryland 19,000 Ions; Pennsylvania 186.000 tons; Virginia 20,- 
000 tons ; and young Ohio, with less than half the resources of Vir- 
ginia, 43,000 tons. The two Carolinas together made 4,000 tons. 
If we value the cast iron at thirty dollars a ton, and the bar iron at 
fifty dollars, exclusive of the value of the pig metal used in making 
it, then Pennsylvania, the only State that has resources for iron- 
making equal to those of Virginia, made iron to the value of about 
7,400,000 dollars a year, and Virginia, to the value of 720,000 dol- 
lars, — less than one-tenth. 

Next, in order to save room, we put together the values of the ■ 
manufactures of Cotton, Wool, Leather, and articles manufactured 
out of iron and steel, such as Cutlery, Hardware, 4*c. We also 
put together the three New England States of Massachusetts, Con- 
necticut and Rhode Island, which are in size equal to about one- 
fiflh of Virginia, and in natural resources for manufactures, to about, 
one- tenth. 

The total value of these four manufactures was, — In the three 
New England States, fifty millions of dollars ; in New York, twen- 
ty-one millions; In little New Jersey, six millions; In Pennsylva- 
nia, sixteen millions ; In Maryland, three and a half millions ; and in 
Virginia two and three-fourth millions: So even half-slaveholding 
Maryland, a comparatively small State, beats Virginia in these manu- 
factures : and as to the wholly free Stales, why, you see how the 
comparison stands. 

To give a clearer idea of the comparative amount of these manu- 
factures, we divide the total value in the several States by their po- 
pulation ; and thus find how much it makes on the average for each 
individual. In the three New England Stales, the average is forty- 
five dollars a head ; in New York, nine dollars; in New Jersey, 
sixteen ; in Pennsylvania, nine ; in Maryland seven and a half; and 
in Virginia two and a fourth. 

If we had taken into the calculation all the various kinds of manu- 
facture, the result of the comparison would not be materially dif- 
ferent. We may say therefore that the old Free States have in 
general about seven or eight limes as large a proportion of manu- 
factures, as our old State of Virginia has, notwithstanding her su- 
perior resources for that branch of industry. 

The last census gave also the cost of constructing new buildings 
in each Stale, exclusive of the value of the materials. The amount 
of this is a good test of the increase of wealth in a country. To 
compare different Stales in this particular, we must divide the total 
cost of building by the number of inhabitants, and see what the 
average will be for each inhabitant. We find that it is in Massachu- 
Bctts, #3 60 cents; in Connecticut, ^3 50 cents; in New York, 



27 

{P3 00 ; in New Jersey, $2 70 cents; in Pennsylvania, gS 10 cents; 
in Maryland, $2 30 cents; and in Virginia, $1 10 cents. 

Tiie census enables us also to find what proportion there is be- 
tween the number of persons employed in agriculture, and the num- 
ber employed in mechanical trades and manufactures. By calcula- 
tion we find, that for every 100 persons employed in agriculture, 
there are employed in manufactures and trades, the following num- 
bers, viz: in Massachusetts, 98 ; in Connecticut, 49 ; in New York, 
38; in New Jersey, 48 ; in Pennsylvania, 51 ; in Maryland, 20 j 
and in Virginia, 17. 

All these successive comparisons, that we have made between the 
principal old free States and Virginia, coincide in their general 
results ; and thus prove each other to be approximately correct, — 
sufficiently so to answer the purpose of our present argument. The 
reader must have observed also, how uniformly half-slaveholding 
Maryland serves as an intermediate stepping-stone, as we descend 
from the high level of Northern prosperity, to the low ground of 
Virgmia depression. 

Surely we need say no more to satisfy every one of you, fellow- 
citizens, that trades and manufactures do not flourish in Virginia ; 
that they are indeed in a very low state ; though nature has done 
every thing that nature can do, to make them easy and profitable to 
our people. 



Let us now turn to the third great branch of productive industry, 
Commerce and Navigation. 

The Northern people derive much of their wealth from com- 
merce and shipping. But the slave States are more deficient in 
these, than they are in manufactures. They only make cotton and 
tobacco for Northern men and foreigners to buy and ship. We 
have mentioned, in general terms, the excellent facilities which our 
State possesses for commercial pursuits. We may say, that her bay 
and tide-rivers all make one great haven, 500 miles long, situated 
midway between the Northern and Southern extremes of our At- 
lantic coast. Norfolk is the natural centre of the foreign and coast- 
ing trade of the United States. It ought to have commanded the 
trade of North Carolina, of all the countries upon the waters of the 
Chesapeake, and of half the Great West. It ought to have been 
the second, if not the first, commercial city in the United States. 

Norfolk is an ancient borough, and once stood in the first rank of 
American seaports. But its trade declined, its population was long 
at a stand, and nothing but the public Navy Yard has kept it up. 
Meanwhile, Northern towns have grown up to cities, and Northern 
cities to great and wealthy emporiums ; until our Virginia seaport, 
once their equal, would cut a poor figure among their suburbs. Oh 



28 

that Norfolk were as prosperous, as her citizens are kind and hospi- 
table ! 

This sketch of the natural advantages of Norfolk, compared with 
its condition, is a good index of the commercial history of Vir- 
ginia. In fact the commerce of our old slave-eaten Common- 
wealth, has decayed and dwindled away to a mere pittance in the 
general mass of American trade. 

The value of her exports, which twenty-five or thirty years ago, 
averaged four or five millions of dollars a year, shrunk by 1842, to 
2,820,000 dollors, and by 1845, to 2,100,000 dollars. 

Her imports from foreign countries, were, in the year 1765, valued 
at upwards of 4,000,000 of dollars: in 1791, they had sunk to 2^ 
millions ; in 1821, tliey had fallen to a little over one million ; in 
1827, they had come down to about half this sum ; and in 1843, to 
the half of this agaij, or about one-quarter of a million ; and here 
they have stood ever since, — at next to nothing. 

So our great Virginia, with all her natural facilities for trade, brings 
to her ports about one five-hundredth part of the goods, wares and 
merchandize, impoited into the United States. 

Shall we be told that the cause of this decline of Virginia com- 
merce, is the growth of Northern cities ; which by means of their ca- 
nals and railroads nnd vast capital, drawn off the trade from smaller 
ports to themselves.'* And what then.'' The cause assigned is 

itself ihe effect of a prior cause. We would ask those who take 
this superficial view of the matter : Wiiy should the great commer- 
cial ports be all outside of Virginia, and near or in the free States .'' 
Why should every comtnercial improvement, every wheel that speeds 
the movements of trade, serve but to carry away from the slave 
States, more and more of their wealth, for the benefit of the great 
Northern cities.'' The only cause that can be assigned, is, that where 
slavery prevails, commerce and navigation cannot flourish, and com- 
mercial towns cannot compete with tiiose in the free States. They 
are merely places of deposit, for such country produce, as cannot be 
carried directly to the Northern markets. Here Northern and foreign 
ships come to carry away these products of slave labor — and this 
constitutes nearly all the trade of Southern ports. 

No State has greater conveniencies for ship navigation and ship 
building, than Virginia. Yet on all her fine tide waters, she has little 
shipping ; and what she has, is composed almost wholly of small 
bay craft and a few coasting schooners. The tonnage of Virginia 
— that is, the number of tons that her vessels will carry — is shame- 
fully small, compared with that of the maritime free States. Maine and 
Massachusetts, with about an equal population, have about fifteen 
times as much ; little Rhode Island has considerably more ; New 
York has at least twelve times as much; Pennsylvania, with herons 
sea port, has more than twice as much ; and so has half-slaveholding 
Maryland. 

As to ship building, Virginia, that ought, with her eminent advan^ 



29 

tages for the business, to build r.s many ships as any State in th» 
Union, does less at it than the least of those free States. All that 
she builds in a year on her long forest-girt shores, would carry only 
eight or nine hundred tons — that is, about as muc!i as one good 
packet ship of the North. Maine and Massachusetts build thirty-five 
times as much ; little llhode Island builds twice as much ; New York 
ivventv times as mncli ; Pennsylvania twelve times as much; and 
Maryland seven ticnes as mucii ; and what would astonish us, if we 
did not know so many like lacts, is, tliat much of the ship timber 
used in the North, is actually carried in ships from our Southern 
forests, where it might rot before Southern men would use it for any 
such purpose. We do not blame our Southern people for abstain- 
ing from all employments of this kind. What could they do .'' Set 
their negroes to building ships .^ Whoever imagined such an ab- 
surdity? But could tliey not hire white men to do such things? 
No : for in the first place, Southern white men have no skill in such 
matters ; and in the second place, Northern workmen cannot be iiired 
in the South, without receiving a lieavy preniiuni for working in a 
slave State. 



Here we close our general review of the effects of slavery upoa 
the population and the productive industry of States. 

We shall now advert briefly to the effeets of slavery upon 

Common Schools and Popular Education. 

There are two ways of estimating the degree of genera! education 
and intelligence among a people : the one is, to judge by the num- 
ber of children going to school ; and the other, to judge by the num- 
ber of grown people who are unable to read or write. The last 
census contains returns of all these things. 

1. The nunjber of scholars that attended school during some part 
of the year, was in New England and New York, one to every four 
and a half white persons; in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, one to 
every nine ; in Maryland, one to every nineteen ; in Virginia, one to 
every twenty-one ; and in the Carolinas, one to every twenty-seven, 

2. In respect to the number of grown white persons unable to 
read or write, we have to remark, that the returns of the census for 
all the States, are somewhat defective ; for the Southern Slates ex- 
ceedingly so, on account of the great numbers of this class of per- 
sons, and their reluctance to confess their ignorance. The school 
systems in the North have made the number very small, excepting 
the foreign emisrants, who brought their ignorance with them. In 
the South, not only is the number known to be very large, but they 
are chiefly natives. Hence it is only in the South, that the defects 



30 

in llie returns prevent us from forming an accurate judgment of tha 
amount of popular ignorance, resulting from the want of an efficient 
school system. In the f^turns for V^irginia, there are eight or ten 
counties in which few or none of this class were returned ; and in 
many other counties, the numbers returned are evidently far short 
of the truth. We ought certaicdy to adil one-third to the total re- 
turn, to bring it near the truth. Tlie number returned for Virginia, 
is 58,7S7 : the actual number could not have been under 80,000. 
But to be sure of not exceeding th'j truth, we put it 70,000. We 
also put North Carolina at 60,000, and South Carolina at 24,000 ; 
which exceed the returns, but certainly fall short of the actual num- 
bers. 

By examining the census, we find that the adult part of the popu- 
lation is about one-half of the whole. We compare the numbers of 
white adults who cannot read, with the total number in each State ; 
and find that in New England, these illiterates are as one, to one hun- 
dred and seventy: in New York, as one to fifty-three ; in New Jer- 
sey, as one to fifty-five ; in Pennsylvania, as one to forty-nine ; in 
Maryland, as one to twenty-five ; in Virginia, as one to five and a 
half; in North Carolina, as one to four and a half; and in South 
Carolina, as one to five and a half. 

We give these only as approximations to the truth ; but they are 
sufficiently near to show, beyond any manner of doubt, that slavery 
exerts a most pernicious influence on the cause of education. This 
it does by keeping the white population thinly scattered and poor, and 
making the poorer part of them generally indifferent about the edu- 
cation of their children. 

A similar difference between the free States and slave States, ap- 
pears in the West, when we compare Ohio with Kentucky and Ten- 
nessee. Four times as large a proportion of children attend school 
in Ohio, as in the other two States ; while the proportion of illiterates 
is only one-fourth as great. On the whole, the evidence on this sub- 
ject is complete and unqueetionable. The people in the slave States 
are not, and cannot be, half as well accommodated with schools, as 
in the. free States; and slavery inflicts on multitudes of them the 
curse of ignorance and mental degradation through life. 

Having tiius briefly, yet we believe sufficiently, established the 
proposition that slavcj-y is 'pernicious to ihe welfare of States ; we 
shall conclude the argument by establishing the particular proposition, 
that slavery is ijernicious to the welfare of West Virginia. This 
being contained in the general proposition, does not need any sepa- 
rate proof; yet, lest some people should imagine that West Virginia 
is an exception, and has not sufi'ered from slavery, we shall demon-* 
Btrate to you the contrary by plain facts — facts derived from actual 
experience — the very best evidence which the nature of the case 
admits of. We compare the past progress and present condition ot' 
West Virginia, with t.he past progress and present condition of tha 
countries adjacent to her. 



31 

Fetlow^ciiizens, has it occurred to you to notice the fact, that West 
Virginia is almost as large as the State of Ohio ? If the counties of 
Allegany and Washinglon, in Maryland, were added to her, siie 
would be larger than Ohio. — '* Oh, but Ohio is a u)uch belter coun- 
try than West Virginia." — About half the State of Ohio is better, 
we grant — that is, it is a better farming country ; — but the other half 
is not 60 good. About one third of Ohio consists ol dismal swamps 
and poor hills. In mineral wealth our country is decidedly superior. 
Taking every thing except slavery into consideration, we say that 
West Virginia ought now to have had more than two thirds as much 
population and wealth as Ohio. Our great valley is a comparatively 
old country, and naturally not much inferior to the best parts of Ohio. 
But instead of two-thirds, we have not more than one-fourth of iier 
population 'ind wealth. In proportion to our natural resources and 
actual population, we do not grow even one-third as fast as Ohio, 
and our lands in proportion to quality, are not on the whole more 
than half as valuable. 

But West Pennsylvania furniahes a comparison free from all rea- 
sonable objection or doubt ; for it is a country in the san)e range of 
mountains, and similar in every respect, except that it has a harsher 
climate. Some say that it is on the whole less fertile. It is not so 
large by 5,500 square miles ; containing 33,000, while West Vir- 
ginia contains 38,500 square miles. 

Let us see 

1. The comparative growth and population of West Virginia and 
West Pennsylvania. 

In 1830, West Virginia contained 378,000 inhabitants. 

In 1840, " " " 432,000 

The increase was 54,000, or 14^ per cent. 

In 1830, West Pennsylvania contained .593,000 inhabitants. 

In 1840, *' " " 815,000 

The increase was 222,000, or 37i per cent. 

West Virginia increased in these ten years, about one and a half 
to the square mile, and ended with a population of eleven and a half 
souls to the square mile. 

West Pennsylvania increased in the same time, about seven to the 
square mile, and ended with a population of nearly ttventy-five to 
the square mile. 



The Great Valley of Virginia, between the Blue Ridge and Alle-* 
gany, and from Montgomery county to the Potomac river, has an 
area of 10,100 square miles. The same Valley with no material 
change of character, extends from the Potomac to the Susquehanna 
river, containing an area of 5,100 square miles, in the counties of 



32 

Cumberland, Franklin, Perry, Huntingdon and Bedford, in Penn- 
sylvania, and Washington, in Maryland ; which Inst, though a few 
slaves remain in it, is a county of free labor. But it might be omit- 
ted, with no sensible change in the result of our comparison. 
The Virginia section of the Valley contained, 

In 1820, a population of 154,000, 
In 1830, •' " 174.300, 

In 1840, " " 175.600. 

The Northern section of the Valley, on half the space, contained, 

In 1820, a population of 129,600, 
In 1830, " " 155,500, 

In 1840, " " 179,500. 

The Virginia section increased njoderately, the first ten years ; but 
scarcely at all, the second ten. The total increase in twenty years, 
was less than fourteen per cei.t. 

The Northern section kept on, all the time, increasing at a good 
rate ; and gained in the tivenly years, thirty-eight and a half percent, 
nearly three times as much as the Virginia section. 

Yet the Virginia section was at last only half as thickly peopled aa 
the other, and ought therefore to have grown twice as fast. Instead 
of that, it came ahnost to a full stop, the last ten years : in fact the 
newer mountain counties, where there are almost no slaves, and they 
only, increased a little : the other and richer counties, where slaves 
were numerous, and had been gaining on the white population— 
these counties have increased very little for twenty years; some of 
them have rather declined. The land has already got slave-sick, 
and is spewing out its inhabitants. 

What a pity that so rich and so lovely a land, should be afflicted 
with this yellow fever and this black vomit. 



But let us return to the general comparison. 

The Agriculture of West Pennsylvania is much better con- 
ducted, and much more prosperous, than that of West Virginia. 
We have calculated its productiveness from the census tables, in the 
manner before described ; and we find that the farming industry of 
West Pennsylvania yields the annual value of two hundred and 
twelve dollars to the hanrt ; that of West Virginia, one hundred and 
fifty-eight dollars to the hand. This result is substantially correct ; 
for the lands of West Pennsylvania are much tnore highly valued, than 
those of similar natural qualities in West Virginia. This is true, both 
in the Great Valley, and West of the Allegany. Mark that fact, fel- 
low-citizer.s ; it is worthy of deep consideration ; it is full of mean- 
ing. Lands in West Virginia are much cheaper than similar lands in 



33 

the free country North of Virginia. Yet rather than buy and culti- 
vate these cooci chenp Virginia lands, Northern farmers go farther, 
pay more, and fare worse ; — so they do, and so they will. They 
looii upon all Virginia aa an infected country ; — and so it is. 



Next, the Iron-making Business. 

West Virginia had, in 1840, as good natural resources, in every 
respect, for making iron, as West Pennsylvania. Yet, according to 
the census of 1840, (when no stone-coal was used in iron furnaces,) 
West Virginia made only 14,660 tons of cast and of bar iron, a 
year ; when West Pennsylvania, made 116,530 ton?. The value of 
the West Virginia iron was 515,000 dollars, that of West Pennsyl- 
vania iron was 4,763,000 dollars. The West Virginia iron mas- 
ters mada seventy per cent on their capital, and 390 dollars worth 
to the hand — chiefly slaves. The West Pennsylvania iron-masters 
made 109 per cent on their capital, and 720 dollars worth to the 
hand : — all free laborers. 

There is no sign of material error in the census returns, from 
which we derive these results ; and no error can be supposed, which 
would materially change them. 

The iron business has since increased in West Virginia ; it has 
increased vastly more in West Pennsylvania. 

Next, Mamifactures. 

If to the value of the cast and the bar iron of each country, we' 
add the value of the manufactures oi iron and steel, of wool, cotton 
and leather, we get a total of 770,000 dollars in West Virginia, and 
about six millions of dollars in West Pennsylvania. 

The cost of constructing new buildings, [amounted, in West Vir- 
ginia, to about one-fourth of what it did in West Pennsylvania ; in- 
dicating an increase in wealth and population at the same compara- 
tive rate. 

Manufactures make towns, and towns make good markets for far- 
mers; the larger the towns the better the markets, and the more val- 
uable the lands near them. The Pennsylvania towns are larger and 
more numerous ihan the Virginia towns, both in the Valley and West 
of it. The boast of our West Virginia is the good city of Wheel- 
ing. Would that she were six times as large, that she might equal 
Pittsburg, and that she grew five times as fast, that she might keep 
up with her. 

We glory in Wheeling, because she only, in Virginia, deserves to 

be called a manufacturing town. For this her citizens deserve to bo 

crowned — not with laurel — but with the solid gold of prosperity. 

But how came it, that Wheeling, and next to her, Wellsburg— ^of 

5 



34 

all the towns in Virginia — should become manufacturing towns ? — 
Answer : They breathe the atmosphere of free Slates, almost touch- 
ing them on both sides. — But agai.i ; seeing that Wheeling, as a 
seal for manufactures, is equal to Pittsburg, and inferior to no town 
in America, except Richmond ; and that moreover, she has almost 
no slaves: — why is Wheeling so far behind Pittsburg, and compara- 
tively so slow in her growth ? — Answer : She is in a country in 
which slavery is established by law. 

Thus it appears, fellow-citizens, by infallible proofs, tliat West 
Virginia, in all her parts and in all her interests, has suffered im- 
mensely from the institution of slavery. 

The bad policy of the Legislature in former times, in respect to 
roads and land surveys west of the Allegany, did great injury to the 
country. But after allowance is made for this, a vast balance of in- 
jury is chargeable to slavery, and to nothing else. In the Great Val- 
ley, where the other causes had little or no operation, the effects of 
slavery are most manifest and most pernicious. In those parts West 
of the Allegany, upon the Ohio and its navigable waters, where 
want of roads and disputed land titles did least injury — there too the 
corrosive touch of slavery has also shown its cankerous effects. 



Here, fellovv-cilizens, we conclude the general argument; not be- 
cause we have exhausted our materials — far from it — but because 
you will think we have said enough for the present. We shall now, 
by way of appendix to the argument, lay down three propositions, 
to show the necessity of immediate action, to deliver our West Vir- 
ginia from the growing evils of slavery. 

1. Comparativchj few slaves in a country^ especialli/ o?ie like ours, 
may do it immense injury. 

This has been already proved ; but we wish to impress it on your 
minds. We shall, therefore, explain by examples, how a few slaves 
in a country may do its citizens more immediate injury, than a large 
number. 

When a white family own 6fty or one hundred slaves, they can, so 
long as their land produces well, afford to be indolent and expensive 
in their habits ; for though each slave yield only a small profit, yet 
each member of the family has ten or fifteen of these black work- 
animals to toil for his support. It is not until the fields grow old, 
and the crops grow short, and the negroes and the overseer fake 
nearly all, that the day of ruin can be no longer postponed. If the 
family be not very indolent and very expensive, this inevitable day 
may not come before the third generation. But the ruin of small 
slaveholders, is often accomplished in a single life-time. 

When a white family own five or ten slaves, they cannot afford to 
be indolent and expensive in their habits ; for one black drudge can- 



35 

not support one white gentleman or lady. Yet, because they are 
slaveholders, this fauiily will feel some aspirations for a life of easy 
gentility ; and because field work and kitchen work are negroes* 
work, the young gentlemen will dislike to go with the negroes to 
dirty field work, and (he young ladies will dislike to join the black 
sluts in any sort of household labor. — Such unthrifty sentiments are 
the natural consequence of introducing slaves among the families of 
a country ; especir.lly negro-slaves. They infallibly grow and 
spread, creating among the white families a distaste for all servile 
labor, and a desire to procure slaves who may take all drudgery off 
their hands. Thus general industry gives way by degrees to indo- 
lent relaxation, false motives of dignity and refinement, and a taste 
for fashionable luxuries. Then debts slyly accumulate. The result 
is, that many families are compelled by their embarrassments to sell 
off and leave the country. M;iny who are unable to buy slaves, 
leave it also, because they feel degraded, and cannot prosper where 
slavery exists. Citizens of the Valley ! Is it not so ? Is not this 
the chief reason why your beautiful country does not prosper like 
the Northern Valleys. 

2. Slavery naturally tends to increase from small beginnings, un- 
til the slaves out-number the ivhites, and the country is ruined. 

How this comes to pass, is partly explained in the preceding re- 
marks. 

The tendency of a slave population to gain upon the whites, may 
be counteracted by local causes, permanent or temporary. One per- 
manent cause is the vicinity of a free State ; a temporary cause oc- 
curred ten or twelve years ago, when the high price of negroes in 
the South, caused many to be sold out of our Valley. The tendency 
is stronger also in a planting country, than it is in a farming or graz- 
ing country ; yet so strong is the tendency itself, that it overcomes 
this check in West Virginia ; for with the temporary exception just 
alluded to, the slave population has been steadily gaining on the 
white, in all parts except the vicinity of the free States. 

We have examined the census of counties for the last thirty or 
forty years, in Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina, with the view 
to discover the law of population in the Northern slave States. The 
following are among the general results. 

When a county had at first comparatively few slaves, the slave 
population — except near the free borders — gained upon the whites, 
and most rapidly in the older parts of the country. 

The population, as a whole, increased so long as the slaves were 
fewer thnn the whites, but more slowly as the numbers approached 
to equality. In our Valley, a smaller proportion of slaves had the 
effect of a larger one in East Virginia, to retard the increase of popu- 
lation. 

When the slaves became as numerous as the whites in the Eastern 
and older parts of the country, population came to a stand ; when 
they outnumbered the whites, it declined. Consequently, the slave 



36 

population has tended to diffuse itself equally over the country, rising 
more rapidly as it was farther below the white population, and going 
down when it had risen above ihem. 

Such were the general results. Exceptions occurred, but all 
general rules of this nature have their exceptions. This is never- 
theless the law of population in a slave State. 

4. The price of cotton ivill j)Tohahly decline more and rnore^ 
and consequently the value oj slaves : then also the law of slave 
increase, by ivhich it gains on the white population, luill operate 
in West Virginia ivith 7niinous effect, unless prevented by law. 

Tiie price of cotton has regulated the price of negroes in Virgi- 
nia; and so it must continue to do ; because slave labor is unprofit- 
able here, and nothing keeps up the price of slaves but their value 
as a marketable commodity in the South. Eastern negroes and 
Western cattle are alike in this, that, if the market abroad go down 
or be closed, — both sorts of animals, the horned and the woolly- 
headed, become a worthless drug at home. The fact is, that our 
Eastern brethren must send off, on any terms, the increase of their 
slaves, because their impoverished country cannot sustain even its 
present stock of negroes. We join not the English and American 
abolition cry about "slave-breeding," in East Virginia, as if it were 
a chosen occupation, and therefore a reproachful one. It is no such 
thing, but a case of dire necessity, and many a heartache does it cost 
the good jieople there. But behold in the East the doleful conse- 
quences of letting slavery grow up to an oppressive and heart-sick- 
ening burden upon a community ! Cast it off. West Virginians, whilst 
yet you have the power ; for if you let it descend unbroken to your 
children, it will have grow'n to a mountain of misery upon their 
heads. 

We have the following reasons to apprehend, that unless prevent- 
ed by law, the slave population will in a few years increase rapidly 
in West Virginia. 

1. The price of cotton must fall, and with it the value of slaves. 

From 15 to 20 years ago, the average price of cotton was 11 
cents a pound ; in the last five years between 7 and S cents. Had 
the last crop been a full one, the average would have been under 7 
cents. Every successive full crop now depresses the price lower 
and lower ; showing that the supply is on the whole outrunning the 
demand. It must outrun the demand, while the Southern slave- 
market is open to Nortiiern slaveholders. 

From 1820 to 1830, the slaves in the cotton-growing States 
(South of Tennessee and North Carolina) increased 51 per cent, 
and in the next 10 years they increased 54 per cent. In 1840 the 
number including those in Texas was about 1,300,000. The num- 
ber increases as fast as ever; for to the natural increase of the 
Southern stock, is added the increase of the Maryland, Virginia, 
and North Carolina negroes, and half the increase of those in Ken- 
tucky and Tennessee. Thus the negro population of the cotton 
States, is going on to double itself in a period of 16 or 18 years. 

Now the production of cotton must increase at the same rate as 



37 

Ihe slave population ; for cotton and sugar are llie only crops in 
which the slaves can be profitably employed ; and the production 
of sugar cannot increase faster than that of cotton. Tliere will be 
no stoppage for want of good land : Texas has enough to produce 
ten times the quantity of the present annual crop. 

But the consumption of cotton cannot increase at the same rate. 
The population of the countries that consume our cotton, does not 
double itself in less than 60 years: how then can they double their 
consumption in IS years, or even twice that period? Thei'efore 
the price of cotton must fall, and the Southern demand for Virginia 
negroes must cease. 

2. Guod policy will require the Southern States, ere long, to 
close their markets against Northern negroes. The natural increase 
of their present stock of slaves, will increase the production of cot- 
ton as fast as the market will bear. Their short crops have always 
brought them more money than their full crops; showing that it is 
their interest to restrict the quantity within certain limits. A small 
excess in the quantity causes a ruinous fall in the price. Suppose 
the average profit to the planters to be now two cents to the pound ; 
then a fall of one cent takes away half the profit and half the value 
of their slave labor; and a fall of two cents would ruin the busi- 
ness. Good reason, therefore, had Mr. Bruce to apprehend that the 
Southern slave market might, ere long, be closed; and to urge Vir- 
ginians to hasten the removal of their negroes to the South. 

But whether it be closed or not, one thing is evident, — that the 
value of slaves in the market must decline more and more. What 
then ? 

3. When the Southern slave market is closed, or when, by the 
reduced profits of slave labor in the South, it becomes glutted ; — 
then the stream of Virginia negroes, heretolbre pouring down upon 
the South, will be thrown back upon the State, and like a river 
damned up, must spread itself over the whole territory of the com- 
monwealth. The head spring in East Virginia cannot contain it- 
self; it must find vent : it will shed its black streams through eve- 
ry gap of the Blue Ridge and pour over the Allegany, till it is check- 
ed by abolitionism on the borders. But even abolitionism cannot 
finally stop it. Abolitionism itself will tolerate slavery, when slave- 
holders grow sick and tired of it. 

In plain terms, fellow-citizens, Eastern slaveholders will come 
with their multitudes of slaves to settle upon the fresh lands of 
West Virginia. Eastern slaves will be sent by thousands for a 
market in West Virginia. Every valley will echo with the cry 
"INegroes! Negroes for sale ! Dog cheap! Dog cheap!" And 
because they are dog cheap, many of our people will buy them. 
We have shown how slavery has prepared the people for this: how 
a little slavery makes way for more, and how the law of slave-in- 
crease operates to fill up every part of the country to the same level 
with slaves. 

And then, fellow-citizens, when you have suffered your country 
to be filled with negro-slaves instead of white freemen ; when its 



38 

population sliall be as motley as Joseph's coat of many colors, — as 
ring-streaked and speckled as father Jacob's flock was in Padan 
Aram ; — what will the white basis of representation avail you, if 
you obtain it ? Whether you obtain it or not, East Virginia will 
have triumphed ; or rather slavery will have triumphed, and all 
Virginia will have become a land of darkness and of the shadow of 
death. 

Tiien by a forbearance which h3S no merit, and a supineness 
which has no excuse, you will iiave given to your children for their 
inheritance, this lovely land blackened with a negro population — 
the offscourings of Eastern V^irginia, — t!ie fag-end of slavery — the 
loathesome dregs of that cup of abomination, which has already 
sickened to death the Eastern half of our commonwealth. 

Delay not then, we beseech you, to raise a barrier against this 
Stygian inundation, — to stand at the Blue Ridge, and with sove- 
reign energy say to this Black Sea of misery, " Hitherto shalt ihou 
come, and no farther," 



To show that the extinction of slavery among us is practicable 
without injustice or injury to any man, we present you the following 

Outlines of a Schetne fjr the Removal of Slavery. 

1. Let the farther importafion of slaves into West Virginia 
he prohibited by law. 

The expediency of this measure is obvious. 

2. Let the exportation of slaves be freely pei'mitted, as here- 
tofore ; hut ivith this restriction, that children of slaves, born 
ajter a certain day, shall not be exported at all after they are 
five years old, nor those under that age, unless the slaves of the 
same negro Jarnily be exported with them. 

When the emancipation of the after-born children of slaves shall 
be decreed, many slaves will be exported, from various motives. 
The restriction is intended to prevent slaveholders from defeating 
Uie benevolent intentions of the law, by selling into slavery those 
entitled to freedom, and old enough to appreciate the privilege de- 
signed for them. Young children are allowed to be taken away 
with their parents and older brothers and sisters, but not to be sold 
off separately to evade the law. 

3. Let the existing generation of slaves remain in their jjre- 
sent condition, but let their offspring, born after a certain day, 
be emancipated at an age not exceeding 25 years. 

By tbis measure slavery will be slowly but surely abolished, with- 
out detriment or inconvenience to slaveholders. No pecuniary loss 
can be sustained, except at the option of the slaveholders, who, if 
they think that the measure will diminish ihe value of their slaves 
in West Virginia, can sell them for exportation or take them awav. 



39 

with tlie certainty of making more out of them in that way^ 
than they coukl by keeping them and their chihh-en as slaves in 
West Virginia. If they choose to stay and submit to the ojieration 
of the etr.ancipation law, they have the certainty of gaining more 
by the rise in the vahie of their lands, than they will lose in the 
market value of their slaves, in consequence of the emancipation 
law. 

Undoubtedly such a law would immediately attract emigrants by 
thousands from the North, — farmers, manufacturers and laborers ; 
who would bring their capital, their skill, and their industry, to en- 
ricli the country, — to improve its agriculture, draw out the wealth 
of its mines, and make its idle waterfalls and coal beds work up its 
abundant materials of manufacture. Before the law would eman- 
cipate a single negro, it would already have added more to the va- 
lue of the lands and town property of West Virginia than all her 
slaves are worth. If any man among us have many slaves and little 
or no land, he can easily profit by the law as well as others; let him 
6e\\ negroes and buy land. 

Will any man argue, that the rights of slaveholders will be vio- 
lated, because those rights extend to the offspring of their slaves? 

Now the slaveholder's light of property extends to the offspring of 
his slaves, so far as this, that when the offspring comes into existence, 
the law at present allows him to claim it as his. But when the law 
of the land shall in this particular be changed, his right is at an end ; 
for it is founded solely on human law. By nature all men are free 
and equal ; and human laws can suspend this law of nature, only so 
long as the public welfare requires it; that is, so long as more evil 
than good would result from emancipation. When the law of slavery 
is changed for the public good, all that the slaveholder can claim, is 
that in some way, he shall be compensated lor the property acquired 
by sanction of law, and taken away by a change of the law. By our 
scheme nothing is absolutely taken from the slaveholder. It gives 
hirn an option, to remove without loss a nuisance which he holds in 
the country, or to submit, with a very small loss of value, to another 
mode of abating that nuisance. We say that the people have a right 
to remove this pest : and that our scheme gives slaveholders double 
compensation for what they will suffer by the measure. We have 
no doubt that before ten years, nearly every slaveholder would ac- 
knowledge himself doubly compensated. 

4. Let masters he required to have the heirs of emancipation taught 
reading, writing and arithmetic : a7id let churches and benevolent 
people attend to their religious irisiruction. — Thus an improved class 
of free negroes would be raised up. No objection could be made to 
iheir literary education, after emancipation was decreed. 

5. Let the emancipated be colonized. — This would be best for all 
parties. Supposing that by exportation, our slave population should 
in twenty-two years be reduced to 40,000. Then about 1000 would 
go out free the first year, and a gradually smaller number each suc- 
cessive year. The 1000 could furnish their own outfit, by laboring 



a year or two as hirelings ; and (heir transportation to Liberia woul(3 
cost the [)eople of West V^irginia 25,000 dollars: whicli, as popu- 
lation would by that time hrive probr.bl}' reached a million, would be 
an average contribution of two and a half cents a head. This would 
be less and less every year. — So easy would it be to remove the 
bugaboo of a free-negro population, so olten .held up to deter us from 
emancipation. Easy would it be, though our calculations were not 
fully reaiizfid. 

Finally, in order to hasten tiie extinction of slavery, where the 
people desired it, in counties containing few slaves : (he laio might aiC' 
thorizc the people of any county, by some very large majority, or by 
consent oj a majority of the slaveholders to decree the removal or email' 
cipation oj'all the slaves of the county, loithin a certain term of years, 
seven, ten or fifteen, according to the number of slaves. 

This as an auxiliary measure, would be safe and salutary ; be- 
cause the only question then In a county, would be the question of 
tijne, which would not be very exciting. But it would be inexpedi- 
ent as the chief or only measure ; for then the people of the same 
county, or of neighboring counties, might be kept embroiled on the 
subject for years, and the influence of East Virginia, operating on 
counties here and there, might defeat the whole measure, by a repeal 
of the law. Let us move as a body first, and determine the main 
point. Then the connties miffht decide the minor point for them- 
selves. Let West Virginia determine to be free on a general pilnci- 
ple. Then let the counties, if they will, modify this principle, for 
more speedy relief. 



Now, fellow-citizens, it Is for you to determine whether the slavery 
question shall be considered, discussed and decided, at this critical, 
this turning point of your country's history : or whether it shall lie 
dormant until the doom of West Virginia is sealgd. May heaven 
direct your minds to the course dictated by patriotism, by humanity 
and by your own true interest. 

A SLAVEHOLDER OF WEST VIRGINIA. 



, (t?* (Gentlemen friendly to the cause, are requested to aid in the sale anJ 
circulation of this Address. The expense of printing this large edition is 
considerable, and much of it must, at all events, fall on a few individuals. 



ERRORS OF THE PRESS. 

Page 16, line 1 (in some copies) for " protective" read •'productive." 
" 2.3 " G for " drive" read "drove." 
•• " " 21 for "their" read "this." 
" 28 " 22 for " drawn" read " draw," 



